Ethiopia, Eritrea reject plan to draw up new border maps

Nov 21, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia and Eritrea, bitter rivals whose border dispute has been simmering for years, have both rejected an independent commission’s decision to draw up new maps demarcating their frontier.

Eritrea said Tuesday the decision does not go far enough and called for actual border markings on the ground, while Ethiopia said drawing new maps was outside the panel’s mandate.

Relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia have been consistently strained since Eritrea gained its independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. A U.N. peacekeeping force has been monitoring the buffer zone since the cease-fire agreement was signed.

The independent panel _ the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission _ issued a binding ruling on the border in 2002, but Ethiopia has refused to implement it. Last week, the EEBC said it was drawing up maps to clearly show the border _ a symbolic but important gesture that would give Eritrea more clout in claiming its land.

But Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the commission must “demarcate the border on the ground,” not just on maps.

Acting Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman, Wahide Belay, said the EEBC’s maps would be “legally invalid” because they go beyond the panel’s mandate.

(AP)